


Godspeed

by izumi2



Series: List of Questions (Civil War Team Iron Man) [23]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Aside from the notes, But there is no bashing in the fic, Civil War Team Iron Man, Minor Character Death, No Bashing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:01:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23607973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/izumi2/pseuds/izumi2
Summary: The importance a person has depends on who is talking.Peggy Carter was more than just Captain America's Girl for many and there is only so much her family was willing to do for the sake of appeasing people.~*~Team Iron ManNo bashing of characters thoughModerated because of Trolls
Series: List of Questions (Civil War Team Iron Man) [23]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/879633
Comments: 114
Kudos: 867





	Godspeed

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [For a Friend (aka Civil War)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15855537) by [Kizmet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kizmet/pseuds/Kizmet). 



> This was inspired by Kizmet's fic. I wanted to expand on a scene *grins*

**_ Would the family let a complete stranger be pallbearer? _ **

Tony shook his head at Rhodey’s incredulous look.

He didn’t know where Rogers was going, the man just up and left, not like Tony had more information than anyone in the room.

It wasn’t until after he turned his StarkPhone back on that he knew what happened.

Mary Sousa called him for the first time in almost fifteen years. Their only connection was…

“Shit.” Rhodey breathed by his side, his friend immediately reaching the right conclusion. “I’m so sorry, Tones.”

Something was gripping, squeezing his heart, but… it was a twinge, a dull ache, “I barely knew her. She wasn’t… it’s not like that, Rhodey.”

Peggy Carter was the nice, if loud, lady that would tell him stories of Captain America. But that stopped long before he went to college, and Tony went to college when he was thirteen. The last time they met was in his parents’ funeral and the last time they talked was the next Christmas. After that they would send each other holidays cards if that.

Her kids, Mary and Jake, would sometimes call, they were close-ish as kids, but Tony was too young to be their peer and also went to college too young, and they would go to the CIA and the military respectively. They didn’t quite maintain contact. Jake's sporadic e-mails stopped completely after Tony shut the weapons manufacturing, which was understandable, they barely talked before that and they would have even less in common after. Mary followed in her mother’s footsteps and would sometimes send Christmas cards.

“Still… she was the last… she was the last.” Rhodey trailed off, not sure how to complete the phrase.

The last link to his dad, the last link that tied him with many others he wouldn’t have met if not for her insistence in… maintaining the past? Tony didn’t know.

He called back.

_“Tony?”_

“Hey, Mary. When did it happen?”

 _“Last night. She died in her sleep.”_ Mary Sousa was every bit her parents’ daughter. Her voice was somber, but she didn’t let it shake.

“Can I do anything?” Maybe flowers? Or… something. Tony didn’t arrange his own parents’ funeral and that was the last funeral he ever went to.

Mary hesitated for just a second, but Tony frowned. She wasn’t one to beat around the bush.

_“The whole thing is bound to be a circus. You know that.”_

Captain America’s former flame just died not five years after the man himself was found to be alive. Yeah, Tony could already see the headlines.

“What do you need?”

 _“The family is yelling their lungs out since the news hit and I have no doubt that the Carters would leak it to the press if only to get Mom’s service be in UK. Jake and I… we would really appreciate it if… I understand that we can’t avoid the whole thing entirely, but I just_ **can’t** _see a… version 2.0 of the Howling Commandos or the WWII in my mother’s funeral. This was supposed to be private…”_

“… Mary… not even I can manage to spin it away from that. What I can do is use some contacts and have it splashed in Twitter that Peggy Carter may be British, but she made a life for herself here in U.S. Have the service here.”

 _“And that is more than enough. They are almost ready to ship her body overseas, and, Tony, we want her buried next to Dad!”_ Mary took a deep breath. _“Sorry.”_

“It’s ok, I understand.”

_“I’m not above compromising and that’s the other reason I called. Going inside the church, when the press will be the most rabid, we already chose the pallbearers and, if you could do this for us… I know that you owe us nothing, but…”_

“No… it’s fine. I can make good for the press.”

_“Thank you. Jim Morita, Antoine Triplett, Sean Dungan and Will Dernier will round it up. Have Sharon carry the flags.”_

“Will Dernier?” His tone was a bit amused now. “How did you manage **_that_**?”

 _“I can be very convincing.”_ She answered with mock-smug tone.

Will Dernier had a bachelor’s in political science and was a diplomat in Paris. Needless to say, the man wasn’t quite the fit for leather, guns and spies, or even the army type that his father was. While proud of having a Howling Commando for a father, Will was perfectly happy behind a desk.

“Anything else?”

_“Actually… do you think Steve Rogers could be convinced?”_

“Oh, without a doubt.”

Something in his voice made Mary pause. _“Do I want to know?”_

“He left in the middle of a meeting because of a text message which contents I can now make an educated guess about.”

 _“… will he cause problems? Making nice to the press and tolerate a scene_ **inside** _the church in my Mom’s funeral service are two very different things.”_

The billionaire sighed. “I… can try and explain things to him.”

Another pause. This one lengthier and more meaningful. _“It shouldn’t take long. We know that the media would be almost knocking down the door. Have fewer speakers and then the other pallbearers will get Mom to the plot next to Dad’s.”_

“It needs to be long enough for the press to think that it’s all that there is to it. The less people catching different pallbearers, the better.”

_“Agreed… I… assume that Mr. Rogers would want to stay for the burial?”_

“I think so. We have the meeting in Veneza later that week…”

_“Oh, my God. I’m so sorry, Tony. The Accords! I… I can’t believe I forgot! Mr. Rogers must be feeling like being pulled in several different directions…”_

“Hey, hey! Your mom just died. I think you get a pass.”

Mary took in a deep breath. _“Will Mr. Rogers understand? I… I know that they meant something to each other, but… Jake wants a really quiet service. Probably just with us as speakers, Sharon wanted to have a say but even then…”_

Tony mulled that over. Would Steve understand that Peggy’s kids want a really quiet affair? With the focus being on their mother and not “Captain America’s former flame”? That they didn’t want the Director and one of the founders of S.H.I.E.L.D, but Peggy Carter-Sousa, their mom, to be remembered. Tony honestly couldn’t say. He didn’t know Rogers **_that_** well.

“I can try to speak to him.”

_“Tony… I understand that for Mr. Rogers… it wasn’t so long ago that… they had something. And I don’t know Captain America outside of movies and comics. But we need this. Jake needs this, I need this.”_

“… I will make sure he understands.”

_“Thank you.”_

“Ok, what is going on?” Sam asked the second Tony stepped back in the room.

Goody, the whole gang was here. The billionaire rolled his eyes.

“Where is Steve?”

“Right here.” Steve looked dead on his feet, pale and wide eyed and Tony had a few seconds to feel sympathetic.

“I think you just received the same news I did.”

Steve’s eyes snapped up at that. “You knew Peggy?”

Tony raised an eyebrow. “Howard, my dad, knew her. They founded S.H.I.E.L.D together, remember? I didn’t know about S.H.I.E.L.D, but I knew about Peggy. She came around the house a little too often for me not to take notice.”

“I… why did you never tell me?” He demanded.

“Because I didn’t know her **_that_** well. She was just this work-lady that would sometimes come to the house and give me a trinket or another. I haven’t seen her since my parents’ funeral and before that since I went to college… and I was thirteen when I went to college. It didn’t even click in my head that Captain America’s Girl and “Miss Peggy” were one and the same until I read your S.H.I.E.L.D file in 2012, and by then you probably had more information on her than I did.”

Steve opened and closed his mouth a few times before shaking his head. “How… how did you know that she…”

“Her daughter, Mary, called me. I had my phone turned off for the meeting but when I saw who called… I had less contact with Mary Sousa since my teen years than I had with Peggy so the only reason for her to call me… anyhow, she gave me a heads-up on the service… if you are interested in attending.”

“Yes! Yes, I am!”

Tony held up his hands. “Ok, so I need to tell you that you’ll be meeting a lot of people that will love that you’re there and the other half will hate it.”

“What?” Steve frowned in confusion.

“Her kids and nephews and nieces in America wanted a small service, personal and private. Unfortunately, Peggy Carter is less known than Captain America’s Best Girl, and the Carter side of the family, back in England, wanted to make this whole show, full of dignitaries and politicians and big figures. Half of Europe watching on live television and more…”

“Holy shit.” Sam muttered to himself.

“Yeah, so they are meeting in the middle. Inviting several people that Peggy’s family wouldn’t know from Adam for the service, and a very quiet and private burial later. Hell, they even invited **_me,_** and I haven’t spoken to anyone there in fifteen years. And inviting me is already guaranteeing the media’s presence en masse. They are also inviting you for that, if you are agreeable.” Tony looked at Steve.

And Steve had a complicated expression in his face. On one hand… Peggy died… she is dead and Steve, for the last four years, could only watch her feeble and weakened state. How her sharp mind had deteriorated to the point of barely recognizing him.

And now… he got a text message from an unknown number while Tony got a call… from Peggy’s own daughter.

Steve wasn’t part of the private and small party of mourners. He was there to be spectacle, the showboating part of Peggy’s life.

He couldn’t… he couldn’t begrudge Peggy’s kids… their part in Peggy’s life and how they want to keep things quiet. Captain America showing up would draw the focus away from where it should be, on Peggy.

Tony said with all the words: they invited Tony Stark, after fifteen years of radio silence.

Numbly, Steve nodded, and Tony nodded back.

“Steve… I am sorry… but you do understand that once we get there… doing this whole shebang outside of the church is to appease the Carters, inside the church… her kids wanted something more private. Televising it and having you… me… there, was the compromise they reached, the price her kids had to pay to have the whole thing here, in America.”

Steve nodded again.

~*~

Once there, Steve truly understood what Tony meant. Many names he recognized, Dungan, Dernier, Morita... Carter, Stark. But while Tony greeted Will Dernier briefly, none of them seemed to know each other that well. Tony introduced him to Jake and Mary Sousa, both older than Tony, in their mid to late fifities. They looked like Peggy. Not as much as Jim Morita looked like his grandad, though.

At least Jim seemed to know Tony a bit more.

It was with surprise that Tony joined him as another pallbearer. After fifteen years since he last spoke to Peggy or her family, Steve wasn't expecting it. Hell, Will Dernier, also older than Tony by almost a decade, confessed to having never met Peggy. He said as much in a heavily accented English.

Although surprised, Steve was also expecting the names Morita, Dernier, Dungan... Stark, to be surrounding him in Peggy's funeral. But... none of them knew each other. Antoine Triplett was apparently Gabe Jones' grandson, mid-twenties and he also never met Peggy. But there was an uncomfortable weight in his stomach when he didn't see Jake Sousa there.

Instead, the man was already waiting by his sister in the front row. The first three already filled with people that Steve didn't recognize.

Once the doors were closed, and the flashes of too many cameras were blocked, all of them sat in the furthest row, closest to the door. Tony, Jim, Atoine, Will, Sean Dungan, a man that had a degree in finances and worked for a marketing company of all things, did their best to pretend that they weren't there at the same time that they tried to pretend to know any of the people in the room.

And the feeling sunk in even more.

_His presence there was a favor and a price._

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I completely ignore Steve's HEA in Endgame. SOOOOOO many reasons that it is ridiculous.
> 
> But ok, the mains ones:
> 
> With the directors *takes a deep breath* saying that every timeline they affected created another timeline, another "world" (multiverse theory, I get it) so it won't affect their timeline, it means that Sharon Carter always was Steve's niece... and he kissed her. Yay! *grimaces*
> 
> Sure, that may say more about Carter than about Rogers since how could have Steve reasonably expect time travel, right?
> 
> So, either: Sharon was lot less close to Peggy than she led us to believe (or else, she would have noticed that the nice man her Aunt Peggy married to weirdly resembles Steve Rogers... right?), or she doesn't mind some mild incest...
> 
> Sharon not being as connected to Peggy is the most likely scenario (for me that is) not just because incest makes me go green and not in the Hulk-variety but because where the hell are Peggy's kids in her FUNERAL??????
> 
> Whatever *rolls eyes*
> 
> And if we take that last scene where Steve doesn't reappear in the Time Machine, he appeared in the bench, it means that he would let all the horrible things that happened... happen, as to not stray from **his** timeline... yay! *grimaces*
> 
> Detail: people do understand that with Rogers "always" being around it means that aside from Wanda, Tony and Bruce, Ultron is also his fault. Arguably, Johannesburg, but also Lagos, Bucharest, Berlin, Siberia, the Wakandans dying for Vision...
> 
> He knew that it was going to happen, and let it happen, after all, and otherwise, maybe they could have won against Thanos without the need for a time machine and he would have never travelled back in time to his HEA... *grins* I am honestly afraid of having a Stan answer to this because sometimes I blanch at some of their "excuses". The time where a Wanda Stan defended Johannesburg as "Well, Bruce left and no one knew it was her" comes to mind.
> 
> So, in a much saner and less yikes world where Steve Rogers has the potential NOT to be a sociopath, would you let a guy you know BY NAME be your mom's pallbearer? 'Cause my dad and my uncles were my grandparents' and I (their oldest grandkid) knew all of them and I would be raging mad (not to say confused) to see someone I don't know carrying my grandparents.
> 
> ~*~
> 
> Yes, I did tease about Jim Morita's grandson (Peter's principal) that is also called Jim Morita (in my fic, not canon) being played by the same actor... *grins*
> 
> And that Tony was not at all close to Peggy. He knew OF her, but "Aunt Peggy" wasn't a thing, so he is just as uncomfortable there as these other people with famous last names.


End file.
